Duration
40h Th
Number of credits
| Master in architecture (120 ECTS) | 5 crédits |
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
French language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the first semester, review in January
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
The Architecture and Politics seminar is about questionning the myth of architecture in itself by showing that architectural activity is always connected to a political, social, historical, cultural context. It will focus on the links between the design of buildings or infrastructures and certain political issues in the 20th and 21st centuries.
The study of the narratives of architectural activity described empirically, including in their banality, by pointing out the impact of institutional policies, bureaucracy, social media, on architectural practice, intends to deliver a counter-reading of architectural discourses far from the making in order to weave differently the links between words and gestures, between theory and practice.
The proposed approach is in line with the research of Sciences Studies and considers objects as actants, for example the anti-homeless benches, the traffic circles, devices that are a priori banal and utilitarian, but which have become high places of citizen protest against the powers that be, or the highway bridges, commissioned in the 1920s and 1930s by Robert Moses, designed to prevent the passage of buses so that only cars can access the beaches of Long Island.
The seminar aims to interrogate the political implications of the agentivity of the artifacts we use and that surround us.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
At the end of this course, students will be able to :
- Identify and analyze controversies according to the Actor-Network Theory (ANT);
- Critical and performative reinterpretation of the instruments of architecture (drawing, photography, model, text, etc.)
- Confront the different discourses with the reality of the facts;
- Relate the concepts of Science Studies to architectural practice;
- Evaluate the agentivity of artefacts;
- Write a research paper;
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
speak english fluently
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
The course draws on the theoretical, analytical and critical contributions of the professor and students. The course will take the form of a seminar combining lectures, presentations of text(s) by students and discussions for shared reflection, lectures.
The course will draw on the expertise developed within the research laboratory ndrscrLab|Architecture and Politics coordinated by Éric Le Coguiec.
Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)
Blended learning
Additional information:
The course combines classroom and distance learning activities
Recommended or required readings
Aureli, P. V. (2011). The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture. MIT Press.
Bureau d'études. "Atlas of agendas - mapping the power, mapping the commons", 2015
Caeymaex, F., Despret V. , Piéron J. (2019). Habiter le trouble avec Donna Haraway. Dehors.
Bell D. et Zacka B. (2020). Political Theory and Architecture. Bloomsbury Academic.
Duncan Bell, Bernardo Zacka (2020). Political Theory and Architecture. Bloomsbury Academic.
Dutta A, Hyde T, Abramson DM, Allais L, Harwood J, Karimi P, Massey J, Muzaffar M_I, Osman M, TenHoor M. (2012). Governing by Design: Architecture, Economy, and Politics in the Twentieth Century (Culture Politics & the Built Environment). University of Pittsburgh Press.
Garutti , F. (2019). Our Happy Life. Architecture and Well-Being in the Age of Emotional Capitalism. MIT Press.
Garutti , F. (2016). Can Design Be Devious? The story of the Robert Moses bridges over the Long Island parkways, and other explorations of unexpected political consequences of design. CCA.
Foucault, M. (1994). Dits et écrits (III, IV). Paris : Gallimard. Le corps utopique, les hétérotopies. Paris : Nouvelles Editions Lignes.
Haraway, D. (2007). Manifeste cyborg et autres essais: sciences, fictions, féminismes. Paris: Exils.
Lambert, L. (2013). Weaponized Architecture: The Impossibility of Innocence. Dpr-Barcelona.
Lambert, L. Que trouve-t-on dans l'épaisseur d'une ligne? Réflexion sur le thème de la frontière.
Latour, B.(2007). La cartographie des controverses. Technology Review, N.0, pp. 82-83.
Latour, B, Yaneva, A. (2008). "Donnez-moi un fusil et je ferai bouger tous les bâtiments" : le point de vue d'une fourmi sur l'architecture». In:GEISER, Reto, Explorations in architecture :teaching, design, research. Basel:Birkhäuser. p.80-89.
Lopez, F. (2019). L'ordre électrique. Infrastructures énergétiques et territoires. Métis Presses.
Mosconi, L. (2018). Emergence du récit écologiste dans le milieu de l'architecture 1989-2015 : de la réglementation à la thèse de l'anthropocène. Thèse de doctorat de l'Université Paris-Est, ED Ville, Transports et Territoires, en partenariat avec le laboratoire Architecture, culture et société (ACS), sous la direction de Jean-Louis Violeau, professeur à l'ENSA Nantes, soutenue le 3 octobre 2018.
Schindler, S. (2015). Architectural Exclusion: Discrimination and Segregation Through Physical Design of the Built Environment. The Yale Law Journal. Vol. 124, No. 6 . pp. 1934-2024
Simpson, D., Jensen, V. & Rubing, A. (2017, 20 février). The City Between Freedom and Security : Contested Public Spaces in the 21st Century (1re éd.). Birkhäuser.
Wigley, M. (2018). Cutting Matta-Clark: The Anarchitecture Project. Lars Müller (1 mai 2018)
Winner, W. (1980). Do Artifacts Have Politics?. Daedalus 109 (1), 1980, p. 121-136.
Weizman, E. (2019). Critical Spatial Practice n° 06 - The Roundabout Revolutions. Presses du reel.
Yaneva, A. (2012). Mapping Controversies in Architecture. Routledge.
Yaneva, A. (2018). Architectural theory at Two Speeds , Ardeth (Architecture Design Theory), 1(1), p. 89-103.
Yaneva, A. et Alejandro Zaera-Polo (2015). What Is Cosmopolitical Design? Design, Nature and the Built Environment. Routledge.
Exam(s) in session
January exam session
- Remote
written exam
August-September exam session
- Remote
written exam AND oral exam
Written work / report
Additional information:
The evaluation will be based on the various intermediate works handed in and presented throughout the semester and on a research paper.
- Completion of a visual survey (photography, video, drawing, etc.): 25%
- Oral presentation of the visual survey: 25%
This presentation will focus on the relationship between architetcure and politics and will take into account the texts discussed in class.
- Research paper: 50%
Writing of a synthesis text that articulates the links between the visual survey carried out, the analysis of the visual survey and the texts discussed in class.
Work placement(s)
Organisational remarks and main changes to the course
The Architecture and Politics seminar will be held throughout Q1. Specific dates, times, and locations are provided via CELCAT. The e-Campus or MyUliège platform will be the preferred communication tool with the course holders. The choice of platform will be communicated at the beginning of the year. All documents and pedagogical resources (slides) will be posted on this platform. As a change of location or schedule is possible, students are required to consult CELCAT and their mailbox regularly.
Contacts
Eric Le Coguiec
eric.lecoguiec@uliege.be